At Long Last -- Uninsured Catch Clinton's Attention

Published
4:00 am PST, Monday, January 24, 2000

THAT PRESIDENT Clinton's expensive $110 billion health care plan would give federal health coverage to only 4 million of the 44 million people uninsured in the country underscores the intractability of the problem of affordable health care.

Add the fact that this is a presidential election year in which the Republican-dominated Congress will be loath to bless any major piece of legislation that is billed as the inspiration of both Clinton and presidential hopeful Vice President Al Gore, and the prospect for significantly expanding health care coverage this year seems negligible.

Gore himself may eschew a raucous congressional negotiating session on health care if he finds himself in the position of having to defend Clinton compromises that retreat from his campaign pledges. The few Republicans who have spoken out on insurance have backed a plan that in some respects is more similar to the proposal by Gore's rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, former Sen. Bill Bradley. Bradley wants to replace Medicaid with

private insurance and provide a subsidy that would allow people to buy into private

insurance plans. But he would protect and expand Medicare to include a new prescription

Still, Republicans will be under some pressure to act on the dilemma of the uninsured this year. Polls show that the public is well-disposed toward guaranteeing that working Americans have health insurance. Also, it would be difficult to argue against helping the have-nots if there is another large surplus. Clinton is proposing that the money for what he described as "the largest investment in health coverage since the establishment of Medicare in 1965," would come from non-Social Security budget surpluses.

Clinton also has some powerful allies that he lacked six years ago when he pitched his unsuccessful health care reform plan. The Health Insurance Association of America, which sponsored the biting 1994 Harry and Louise ads against Clinton's proposal, have revived the couple. This time, however, they are speaking out in guarded support of Clinton's new proposal for the uninsured.

The time for politicians to address the epidemic of the uninsured is long overdue.